Ayala Land Inc., one of the largest property companies in the Philippines, acquired a 9.16-percent interest in GW Plastics Holdings Bhd. of Malaysia through a private placement amounting to $43 million (P1.9 billion).
The stake in the Malaysian company, to be renamed MCT Bhd., marked Ayala Land’s first significant investment in Southeast Asia.
Ayala Land president and chief executive Bernard Vincent Dy said in an interview after the annual stockholders’ meeting the company was keen on expanding within Southeast Asia, one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
“Asean is the fastest growing region and we feel that there are also other opportunities in the region that we could possibly participate in. One of those countries that is experiencing fairly food growth rates not only this year but also in the previous two to three decades is Malaysia,” Dy said.
“We feel Malaysia is a market that shows a lot of opportunities for us to participate in,” he said. Ayala Land will have one board seat in MCT.
Established in 1999 as a construction company, MCT is a property development company specializing in mixed-use projects that include retail, office, hotel and mid- to affordable residential units.
MCT, listed under the main market of Bursa Malaysia, has several ongoing projects in OneCitySubang Jaya and Cyberjaya, as well as a land bank in Dengkil, 1.5 kilometers away south of Cyberjaya, all located in the Klang Valley in Malaysia.
By teaming up with a company such as MCT Bhd., Ayala Land will be expanding its footprint in Southeast Asia in line with diversification goals.
The investment will allow Ayala Land to enter the Malaysian market with an experienced team, benefit from synergies of the partnership and further add value to MCT over the long term to enable it to become a key player in the Malaysian real estate market, the company said.
Aside from Malaysia, Ayala Land is also looking at investment opportunities in Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar.
Meanwhile, Ayala Land chief finance officer Jaime Ysmael said the company was raising P7 billion from the issuance of seven-year retail bonds by the end of the month.
The property firm hired BPI Capital Corp., PNB Capital, China Bank and Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corp. as underwriters for the offering.
Ayala Land plans to use proceeds from the fund raising activity to partially finance the company’s P100-billion programmed capital spending this year.